Wrecking the Sphere
by icor
Summary: [Aerith x Cloud x Zack] A sketchy account of how Zack takes care of Cloud after the incident at Nibelheim, and everything it leads to. A story of three people drawn together by hideous experiments.
1. Prologue

An AU assuming Zack is not killed by Shin-Ra, and the two make it to Midgar, only to live in hiding.

---

It's strange how two people can be so different, and yet somehow so close. Cloud is the smaller of the two – sixteen years old and not _quite_ five foot five – and it is little surprise that the other boy, Zack is the taller – recently turned nineteen and now over six-foot.

Cloud's body too is smaller. Not weaker, so to speak, but thinner. Frail almost; frail next to Zack's two years and three months worth of extra training, and his somewhat slower metabolism. Compared to his bright blue eyes Zack's brown ones, despite being infused with mako, are dull and shallow looking- then again, they to synchronise perfectly with his shoulder black-brown hair. As proud as he is of his hair, he's taken something of a liking to Cloud's spiky blond mess.

Their personalities too clash. While Zack is more outgoing – more optimistic that a person rightly should be – Cloud is very quite. Some people called it depressing; Zack just thinks of it as endearing.

Yet despite all the differences, there are just as many – if not more – similarities. For instance, once the relatively small physical differences are out of the way, the two boys could be brothers; twins even, had it not been for the age difference. Often locals referred to them as the Knightsguard brothers; Knightsguard because Zack never uses his real surname anymore, and Cloud doesn't freely give his out. The guise of brothers works well enough for them however, and they don't bother to correct people any more.

Zack sighs wistfully as he looks around their apartment- not that you can call it that, really. It's more of a box; a box with the odd bit of furniture thrown into the mix. This box has two rooms. One is the "living area", consisting of a moth-eaten sofa, a cheap table with two chairs (one with three legs) covered in ridiculous amounts of paper work, a shabby looking stove which, despite the laws of physics, does its job well enough, and a black and white TV that is rarely turned on.

It is primarily a place to work and relax, so neither of them feel any pressing need to clean it or fix anything that might break. And so, of course, in the past three months the room had not been tidied once.

The second room is about half the size of the living area, containing two single beds which, curiously, have slowly moved closer together, so much so that there is barely room to stand between them. Except for a wardrobe the room contains nothing else, save the worn clothes that randomly lay around the room.

They have a strange relationship indeed. Neither knows much about the other, apart from for the little they've spoken about. Zack knows that Cloud dislikes – hates, even – talking about his past, and so quite simply they don't. The experience they've shared, yet one more thing they don't talk about, seems to be enough to bring them together. Perhaps they shouldn't be as close as they are, but somehow it's okay.

"So this is our life now," Zack says half to himself with a smile, stirring the freshly made cut of Midgarian coffee. It's not quite a question, but more of a statement.

Cloud doesn't look up until Zack puts the chipped mug down on the table, and even then he just nods.

"I don't like it here. Midgar, I mean. Living with you is not bad at all; it's just this _dirty_ city. They're going to find us sooner or later. Plus, it brings me down." It was hard to imagine a pessimistic Zack.

Again, Cloud nods, talking a sip from his steaming mug.

"Definitely. This coffee's disgusting."

Zack can't help but smile. Somehow, Cloud's roughish mannerisms compliment him perfectly, and he ruffles the ever bouncy flash of blonde hair as he walks past. Grunting oddly he cringes, content with reading his smudged newspaper.

"'m taking a shower," Zack explains as he closes the apartment door behind him. They can't quite afford a place with its own bathroom, and so queues are common; it especially irritates Cloud.

That night, however, Cloud doesn't sleep. Zack too is awake- he never seems to be able to drop off when he can hear his friend move erratically within his tattered bed sheets. He yawns every so often to let Cloud know he's awake- an invitation, almost.

"I don't like it here." Cloud's Nibel accent is still audible through even as his whispers.

This time it's Zack who doesn't reply.

"I… want to go home."

"Home?" Zack asks, eventually.

Once again Cloud shifts, this time so he's facing the black-haired boy.

"Not home, no." With a bitter laugh he adds "there is no home, is there? You saw it; it was burnt down to the ground."

Nothing more is said, but Cloud feels slightly better. A few minutes later he falls asleep, yet Zack doesn't follow.

As every day slowly passes Zack realises that Cloud most definitely is not well, in anyway- physically or mentally. He doesn't eat enough, for a start, and although he tries his hardest to hide it Zack knows he's violently sick more than twice a day. Cloud is barely awake for eight hours a day. Zack on the other hand can't fall asleep because of it.

Zack is becoming sick of the way he screams at night, the way he spaces out, and the way he's too damn afraid to be touched. It's getting to the point where Cloud will freak out if Zack so much as looks at him.

They've been together for – what?- four months, and Zack has slowly learnt how the younger boy's body works. He knows Cloud has become desperate, some how.

"Cloud," he announces as gets up – making sure to make enough noise so that the younger boy wakes up - and flops down on Cloud's creaky bed, "I'm taking you home."

---

Eh. More... yes? No?


	2. Part I

So I suppose this is part one. Thank you so much to everyone who left reviews for the prologue, and everyone who read it. Enjoy!

- - -

Midgar is not at all a pleasant city. Cloud knows he doesn't live in the worst sector – two blocks away from him he hears stories of families of five sharing a single bed, or girls barely classified as teenagers stalking street corners – yet without doubt it is still the most dismal place he's ever visited.

It's also odd that the world's largest city, a fact that they're not going to let you forget, is just so claustrophobic. The grey, monotonous buildings loom over him and the busy, busy people swarm all around him. It's probably due to this that he never leaves their apartment.

Zack's been working as a mercenary ever since the two arrived at the city gates, taking whatever job he is offered. This makes Cloud feel guilty in a sense; all he can do is sleep all day and night, barely lifting a finger all the while. He can remember what happened the night before, but it all seems like a dream; perhaps it was nothing more than a delusion. When he woke up Zack was not around – something he's become increasingly used to – but there was a quickly scribbled note left on the table.

"Potatoes, chicken… _vodka?_ Peas, carrots…" he mutters to himself as he mentally checks through his shopping list. He has something of a relieved smile on his face as he realises that he's managed to remember everything on the list, without fail. Good thing too; Zack only gave him ninety-four gil to spend, and at the moment only two single gil coins clink together in his pocket.

Stopping in his tracks someone protests with colourful language, but he merely blocks them out and gazes around. They huff as they barge past him and a loaf of bread is knocked from a plastic bag, falling onto the damp street floor.

"Pleasant," he states as soon as they've turned the corner.

Crouching down Cloud picks up the bread and wipes the grit and dirt off on his sleeve. Ah yes, _this_ is why he never goes out. People here are just so rude; nothing like the village he grew up in, where everyone had a smile for each other. As he glances up at the rusty sky of the heavenless town he suspects that is the smog that's prolonging his sickness.

It's hard to tell the time in Midgar, as the only sunlight that seeps in is recycled and dull. Glancing down at his watch with the broken second hand he becomes conscious that it's already past five o'clock, and that he has no idea _where_ he is.

"Excuse me," an unfamiliar voice calls down to him, "are you alright?"

Still crouching on the coarse ground he tears his eyes away from his watch and looks up at the young girl who is speaking to him. At first he assumes she's one of the very few rich people in the city: her clothes are unusually bright colour for Midgar – a sort of faded pink – and a woven basket full of fresh flowers is looped over her arm.

However, as he looks closer he sees that he was very much mistaken. The bottom of her dress is darkened from dirty rain water, and she doesn't seem to be bothered by the soot smudged across her pale face and arms. She's just another girl from the slums.

"Mister?" Cloud can't quite place her accent. She's not _from_ Midgar, even though the harshness of their pronunciation has woven with her much softer way of speaking.

"Oh-!" Cloud says as he stands back up and wipes the dirt off of himself. The flower girl smiles, still waiting for an answer.

"I'm fine," he murmurs, but quickly adds, "thank you."

"I saw you on the ground here, and thought you might have been hurt. I know how the locals treat foreigners here, but as long as you're okay!"

Cloud nods a little, slightly surprised by her upbeat attitude. _Pleasant_, he thinks.

"Say, would you like to buy a flower?" she smiles so much that it reaches brilliant green eyes as she gestures down to the basket she's been carrying. It's full of yellow and white flowers, and Cloud gets the feeling that they're probably the only ones grown in the city. They smell vaguely like home, and the blonde smiles awkwardly.

"Sorry," he says honestly. "I only have two gil on me."

"They're only a gil!"

"Well then…" he fumbles through his pocket and pulls out a single copper coin – Zack probably wouldn't appreciate a flower, of all things – and puts in into her open hand.

"Thanks!"

The flower girl plucks a yellow flower out of her basket for him, before slipping the coin into a small pouch. Cloud hazily wonders how she can possibly making a living out of selling something so rare for so little, especially seeing as no one here _wants_ flowers.

"Mister," she continues, albeit a bit uneasily. "I don't mean to interfere, but are you… lost?"

Cloud blushes and rubs the back of his head as he laughs under his breath, mostly at himself. His first real trip out alone, and he's managed to get completely lost- he feels foolish and like a child again, but rather long for his mother, now he wants Zack to come and rescue him. This just makes him blush more. The slum girl seems to understand his dilemma to an extent.

"You must be new here then. Oh, we don't know each others names, do we?"

Cloud shakes his head.

"I'm Aerith Gainsborough."

"Cloud Knightsguard," he introduces himself as. For some reason, he feels bad for lying, even if it is to a stranger.

---

It doesn't take the two long to get back to Cloud's temporary accommodation, and he thanks her whole-heartedly once they get to the sector two slums. She tells Cloud that it's no problem at all- why, she's the one who's grateful; you have no idea how difficult it is to sell flowers! But of course it's getting late, so Aerith pushes his flower behind his ear and quickly goes on her way.

Cloud pushes the door open and calls out. His smile fades a little when Zack doesn't call back, but he is content none the less. The light switch is as stiff as usual, but soon the apartment is alive with the subtle buzz of mako forged electricity.

Suddenly Midgar doesn't seem so bad. Back in Nibelheim, no matter how _pleasant_ it was to the eye, Cloud never really got anything out of it. The boy had no friends- he was bullied, even. But now things look up. He's met a vibrant, good-natured person today, someone who he already thinks he can call a friend, and now the young blonde is standing over a simmering saucepan of pasta, waiting for Zack to come home.

Cloud smiles. As he holds the now boiling pasta by the handle he becomes aware of just how hungry he actually is, and for the first time in weeks he doesn't feel sick. Maybe, just maybe, he and Zack can start their new lives here after all. Maybe they ca-

The pan literally leaps from his hand as he reels back in shock, the boiling hot water splashing over his face before forming warm pools around his feet. It takes a few seconds for him to realise what made him jump so. Spinning on his heels he turns to the apartment door that's torn open with a crash, and ignoring the water that's now seeped into his boots he darts around the table.

But no, it wasn't the thud of the door that had surprised him. Rather, it was the sound of a some_thing_ flying through the doorway and crashing down on his living room floor. The door swings on its hinges with a creak, and Cloud subconsciously pushes it to as he kneels down on the stone floor.

"Urgh… hey Cloud," a very bloody Zack says weakly, somehow still managing to grin.

Cloud can't find the words to reply for a while, but simply looks down at the ex-SOLDIER's body. There's a blood stain steadily growing under his torn shirt, and his bruised wrist doesn't quite appear to be twisted at a natural angle. His face too is bloody, probably from a cut in the midst of his hair.

Propping Zack up on one of his knees he wraps an arm gently around his shoulders.

"I… I thought it was you who looked after me, Zack," he eventually says, and he doesn't choke on his words.

"Heh, sorry kid."

"It's okay… where's the restore materia?"

Zack is a little hesitant, not because he doesn't trust Cloud, but because he doesn't trust Cloud's _healing_ ability. In the end he realises that he doesn't have much choice and feebly points over to the cabinet under the sink with his one good hand. Cloud wastes no time and slips it into his wrist bangle, and in an instant his hands are humming with a soothing green glow.

"I thought you were working." His voice it a little calmer now.

"I was," Zack explains breathlessly, and Cloud's hands slip into his messy hair. "Good pay too- two hundred gil. I was on my way back… a few hours ago, and I ran into some Shin-Ra grunts by the sector eight station. Turns out one of them recognised me… took me ages to out run them."

"You actually managed to run away from Shin-Ra – how many were there, four or five? – and with no weapons?" Cloud sounds somewhat sceptical.

Zack looks up with him with a mixed expression of amusement and mock hurt, but his body jerks a little from a jolt of pain as Cloud grasps his broken wrist too tightly. He doesn't complain out loud, but Cloud briefly sees his eyes flash.

"I was First Class, remember? You think I can't out run a few over-weight guards?"

"… even if they _do_ have clubs and firearms?"

Zack doesn't look as if he has an answer and merely pokes his tongue out. Cloud cringes at the sight; he might not be a medic, or a white mage, but he definitely knows blood dripping from someone's mouth isn't a good sight. Letting go of the injured body without warning he scurries to the cupboard, and pulls a few rolls of bandages and a bottle of potion into his arms.

"Bedroom," he states bluntly.

Just about managing to haul himself to his shaky feet the black haired boy walks through the to the adjoining room before half-throwing himself and half-falling onto his unmade bed.

He looks over to Cloud who is now sitting on the end of the bed in the middle of a balancing act. A bowl of lukewarm water is on his left knee, served in a chipped breakfast bowl, and the potion and bandages are on his other.

He wipes his bloody fingers on his trousers and in a bizarrely upbeat mood he rips open the dressings. Zack's already picked up the greenish liquid and talks between mouthfuls. "You're strangely… happy… today, Cloud."

Shrugging as if to blow it off he pushes Zack down with playful force- he's obviously more relaxed now that he knows his friend is over the worst of it. Laying back as Cloud dabs his bloody chest with a wet towel he shudders in discomfort, his feelings of uneasiness painted clearly on his face as the warm water runs down his stomach.

"Cloud…" he questions. "Do you have any idea _what_ you're doing?"

The boy shakes his head.

"Damn it. We're definitely getting you home."


	3. Part II

Knock, knock.

It isn't the unsteady rattling coming from behind the front door that woke him up; rather it is the force of a stray pillow flying straight for his face. Awaking with a jump he sits up in the dark and hears Zack murmur something muffled within his bed sheets.

Yawning, Cloud asks "what?"

"Door!" Zack states before drifting back to sleep.

Cloud grunts under his breath but throws his duvet aside none the less. Leaning over the side of his bed he feels around the bedroom floor, picking up whatever clothing he lays his hands on, and quickly pulls on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt as he opens the door and approaches the front door.

Knock, knock.

"If it's Shin-Ra," a half-asleep Zack calls, "tell 'em to fuck off."

This makes Cloud laugh a little, but he knows Zack is right- it _could_ be Shin-Ra guards waiting outside to drag them off. The clock above the sink reads 03:26, so theoretically Shin-Ra could come and go without being seen. The Knightsguard brothers would have retired to their apartment one night, and have never been seen again. Of course, there might be blood stains on the walls, table, furniture, sink to show some signs of a scuffle, but other than that-

Cloud shakes his head to rid himself of such thoughts, and reassures himself his imagination is only getting the better of him as he's just woken up. Still, he glances at Zack's Buster Sword resting in the corner of the room before bringing his eye to the cracked eyehole.

Immediately he pulls back and unbuckles the door's double lock with haste.

"Aerith?" Understandably, he sounds somewhat confused.

Standing in his doorway, at three twenty-seven in the morning, is the slum's flower girl who he's only met three times before. She looks worn out but relieved, and perhaps a little upset. Aerith manages to force her radiant smile and waves apologetically.

"Hi Cloud," she says awkwardly.

He motions for her to enter the room, shutting the door behind her.

"I was wondering if..." she begins, not waiting for Cloud to ask for an explanation. "Well, that is to say… When I got home today, there were some Shin-Ra soldiers waiting for me, and a man called Reno was among them. So, I can't go home at the moment. I was wondering if you would… be willing to let me stay here for a while."

Aerith seems to have to force the words out, and looks bizarrely embarrassed once she finally asks him. There's a sudden clash and bang as the bedroom door flies open, and the older boy literally falls out; he hops around the living area with jeans only on his right leg, trying to pull the left leg past his ankle.

The two both laugh, happy for a distraction to break the awkwardness between them. Clearing his throat as if to regain his dignity Zack adjusts his shirt collar, and salutes the two light-heartedly. Before Cloud so much as has a chance to explain the situation or introduce the two, Zack turns towards Aerith.

"Aerith!" he exclaims, extending an arm to the younger girl.

She giggles lightly and steps casually into a warm embrace. "Hello Zack!"

Watching the two exchanging smiles, Cloud stands in the background even more confused than he originally was.

"You know Zack?" she asks him.

"_You_ know Zack?" he fires back bewilderedly.

Standing between them Zack feels it's his place to give an explanation to the perplexed pair.

"Well, well. I see you two know each other already, so no need for a formal introduction then. Cloud, Aerith is my old-girlfriend, from about a year ago," Zack pauses; for an instance he's sure he see a wave of jealously ripple across the blonde's face. "And Aerith, back when I was in SOLDIER Cloud worked with me on some missions. We've been living together for a few months now."

Cloud turns away from Aerith and Zack and busies himself filling the kettle. Pulling the jar from the cupboard he dunks an extra spoonful of coffee beans into a clean mug. Aerith and Zack talk for a while behind him about nothing in particular- how they've been, and oh, it's been a few weeks since I last saw you, how's work going for you? The water comes to a boil and the chiming of the spoon against the mug doesn't quite cover their voices. Cloud feels an arm wrap around his waist.

"You're addicted to that stuff," Zack comments.

Cloud shrugs it off and turns to Aerith who is now seated on the sofa. "Aerith'll be staying with us for a while."

Her face lights up and she's quick to show gratitude.

"Thank you! It's alright with you, isn't it Zack?"

"Eh?" he asks over his shoulder, filling two more mugs with hot water. "'course it is."

Cloud snatches one of the mugs off of the side and hands it to Aerith as he flops down on the far end of the sofa. There's silence for a while as they drink, and then, as usual, Zack is the one to break it.

"Now Aerith, what we're offering you here is the finest – and I really do mean _the_ finest – sofa to snooze on in the whole of Midgar."

Although not sure whether to take him seriously or not she's content with whatever she can get. After all, she's turned up at a near enough stranger's house to bed for shelter at an ungodly hour, and they haven't so much as asked _why_ a company like Shin-Ra are after her. Heck, a tatty old sofa beats having to sleep out on the poverty stricken streets; Aerith is a smart girl, and knows exactly what goes on after hours in the back alleys.

Cloud on the other hand does not seem as satisfied with Zack's plan, and while he suspects that he's not being completely serious, he sighs and stands up. Stepping into his room he flicks the light on and picks up a pillow and his sheet which he promptly tosses onto the sofa.

"You can take my bed. There should be a spare duvet in the wardrobe, and I left a pillow on there."

Zack laughs at him and puts his empty mug down on the draining board. "Good man, Cloud. I'll take the sofa tomorrow night, and we'll work like that."

Aerith seems to like Cloud's idea much more than Zack's, and is quick to hug Cloud gratefully. His body freezes up at the strange and unexpected contact – for once it's not Zack's touch - and with a great deal of discomfort puts his arms spasmodically around her waist.

"Stay as long as you need," Zack chimes in.

After goodnights are exchanged and Cloud and Aerith detangle themselves the blonde arranges his duvet and pillow on the sofa. It's far too small to sleep on: it only has two seats, and when he lays across it his knees hang over the edge, while the wooden arm digs into the back of his neck. Shifting around he doesn't quite manage to get comfy, but closes his eyes anyway as Zack and Aerith disappear into his room.

The door closes behind them with its custom creak and Aerith looks around, silently unimpressed. She glances down at the beds and raises an eyebrow.

"You and Cloud sure do sleep close together," she comments as she just about manages to squeeze between the two beds.

"What can I say," he replies as he throws her a bed sheet from top shelf of the wardrobe. "I'm irresistible!"

Aerith laughs at him as she makes her bed – well, Cloud's bed – and kicks off her boots. She hasn't spoken to him properly for around a year, but she's happy to know he's still the same old Zack. They've ran into each other once or twice in Midgar since Zack's moved here, but never really had a chance to catch-up. Laying down she tries to comprehend everything that's happened today: the Shin-Ra grunts at her house, having to run to Cloud, ending up sleeping less than a meter away from Zack…

"Ah, so we get to spend all night together," Zack says with a wink.

"Lucky _you_," the flower girl replies before turning onto her side away from him, trying to hide a smile.

---

As Zack leaves the next morning Cloud flops off the sofa after a night of broken sleep and sinks into the now deserted bed. Aerith doesn't sleep for much longer after being disturbed by the two boys and sets off to find the joint bathroom on her own. She pretends that there's no discomfort in the rusty tin bath, the cold water, or the way she has to crawl back into the clothes she's slept in- not to mention worn the previous day.

It takes five more hours for Cloud to wake up, and Aerith begins to wonder if sleeping in 'til one pm is a regular occurrence. He awakes to the smell of an almost half-decent breakfast that Aerith's rummaged around to make, and vaguely wonders what she wants. Half way into his meal she blurts out that she really, _really_ needs him to go over to her house.

He agrees uncertainly and darts out into the hot August streets. Luckily the house is not difficult to find; it stands out like a sore thumb in the slums. It's a pallet of soft pastel colours blooming flowers; small, but cosy. Her mother, it turns out, is not as instinctively warm to Cloud; she greets him with a glare, demanding that he let her daughter go. For a few moments he's confused, but then realises Elmyra assumes he's part of the Shin-Ra.

A few minutes later he leaves with a rucksack full of clothes and a letter for his new roommate.

The arrangement works well enough for a while.

Zack's working pretty much everyday now, and Aerith is quite often out. When Cloud asks her she says she's going down to the Church- a concept that's lost on him, and so he spends a good few days nose deep in books trying to find out exact _what_ a Church is. Some days he visits it with her, although he does find the tranquil atmosphere makes him even more tired and his head floods with thoughts.

They go shopping together too. Unexpectedly, Aerith turns out to be a surprisingly good haggler in the marketplace, and so Aerith does the talking and Cloud stands back and carries the cheap plastic bags.

Yet at the same time the arrangement is falling apart as soon as it starts.

In the beginning Cloud and Aerith share a room every other night, and so inevitably the flower girl is woken up by his terrified screams. She gets up in alarm and kneels by his bed, and he awakes with a violent shudder, falling back into her worried arms. Neither of them talk to each other for a few days.

She questions Zack about it, but he just shrugs naively. "Cloud doesn't like to talk about these things," he explains. "You'll just have to accept that."

From there on he slowly explains everything about the incident to her. Everything that he knows, that is. He tells her about the tubes of mako, the second-hand oxygen forced into the back of their necks, the injections, the experiments, the way he had to watch them drag a barely-conscious but somehow screaming Cloud away into the back recesses of the lab, and most of all, the way the screams would suddenly stop.

On the sixth night, however, Zack loses his last nerve and in a sudden flush of annoyance he pulls the duvet and pillow off of the sofa and charges into the bedroom. The younger two roommates don't wake up even when the door slams behind him, and so he claims Cloud's bed.

An hour or so later Cloud wakes up to feet greeting him.

"Zack!" he whispers irately. "What are you doing?"

"Ugh… sleeping. I couldn't take that sofa anymore. You understand, right?"

He doesn't want to admit it, but he understands perfectly. He'd rather share his creaky single bed with Zack every night then have to sleep on that damned sofa again. Cloud makes a disapproving noise and says something about not liking feet before shifting over as far as he can without hitting the wall.

Taking this as an invitation to move the black-haired boy pulls himself and his pillow up to Cloud's end of the bed. Cloud protests even more, and pushes Zack back as he makes himself comfortable next to him.

"Hey now," Zack murmurs under his breath as he clamps his hands around the blonde's wrists and settles himself.

Cloud is still somewhat annoyed but lets Zack push him in back down onto the bed, accepting that he's going to have to sleep with his friend from now on.

"Since you're awake," Zack continues, "we might as well talk."

"Now?" Cloud doesn't sound happy.

"Why not? We've needed too for a while."

Something tells Cloud that this is the conversation he's been dreading, and he shifts uncomfortably in the bed covers. His fingers curl into the sheets and Zack continues almost eerily seriously.

"What do you dream about at night, Cloud?"

"… why ask questions you already know the answers too?"

"I figured as much."

"Mmm," Cloud says softly as he turns away from Zack.

Zack's voice raises and he sounds angry. "Mmm? Its that all you can say? After all I've done – after dragging you across two continents and the sea on my back, after getting you back to health, after providing a living for you and a roof over your head – you still won't tell me _anything_? I'm your friend, damn it Cloud!"

"Look," Cloud interjects shakily, "what happened to you there was very different to what happened to me, I can't even begin to talk about it, and I... I..."

For a few moments the bedroom is silent once more.

"Cloud…" Zack whispers more calmly as he wraps an arm around Cloud's waist and pulls him closer. "I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't thinking."

Cloud turns to face the older boy, letting the arm drape around him.

"Why is it always you taking care of me?"

If it wasn't so dark Cloud would have seen him blush. "If I didn't, you'd be doomed- you're like a little kid! You know, you can just ask me to stop if-"

"No," Cloud says quite surely. At some point it seems that Zack's wrapped his arm tighter and tighter around him. It's oddly comforting for him, however much he hates depending on Zack. "Thanks, Zack."

Out of an unexplainable impulse, possibly caused from the rare closeness of their bodies, Zack looks down to the boy and quite regrettably presses is lips onto Cloud's. It lasts only a few seconds – a few seconds too long – and after that nothing is said. They're not uncomfortable- merely confused.

Aerith doesn't even ask what on earth happened when she wakes up in the morning to see a tangle of limbs hanging out of Cloud's bed.


	4. Part III

I really haven't updated in a while, seeing as I got the prologue and first two chapters up in just over a week. This chapter's longer though, and is the final instalment of the 'Midgar-arc', so to speak. Now I can really get the plot kicking in- I think I have quite a solid idea of where I want to go with this. All I can say is there'll be a lot of a certain silver-haired warrior, a _lot_ of blood and tears, angsty pasts and obscure romance. All the characters seen in FFVII will make some sort of cameo, and the party will always be Zack, Cloud and Aerith, but I hope to give Vincent and Lucrecia big roles too.

Well anyway, I hope you were all safe this holiday season, and please enjoy this.

Reviews are (as ever) loved.

---

Cloud is woken by a sudden flash light as if someone has drawn the curtains far too quickly, and he groans as he buries his head into his pillow. For a moment he is reminded of his mother and Nibelheim- in particular the gruelling task of getting up at six am every morning to hike to the village's only school – and he wants nothing more than to sleep in peace.

"Come on!" Zack's voice seems unusually loud to Cloud this morning. Glancing over his bed cover for a second the clock tells him it's seven am exactly, and the boy decides he is awake at least five hours too early.

"Go away," he murmurs as he tosses his bed cover over his head. Aerith and Zack both laugh at the childish action and sit themselves down on the edge of his bed, making sure to not squash his feet. They are both well prepared for this, and Aerith pulls the cover back.

"Cloud!"

Cloud reluctantly looks towards her, finally admitting defeat as he waves sleep good-bye with a closing yawn. Looking at them both with hazy eyes he mutters something that could either be "huh?" or "wha?", and pulls himself into a sitting position.

"Happy Birthday!" Aerith beams as she manages to catch him off-guard in a hug.

Birthday? Despite being woken up so early Cloud manages to smile; he hadn't expected to hear the words from anyone this year, and a wave of happiness washes his fatigue away. Zack too moves towards him, but settles to further mess up his hair (something that Cloud didn't think was possible) rather than hug him like Aerith.

In the corner of a room is an unwrapped leather box, about four foot in length and sleek looking. The ex-Soldier smirks as he sees Cloud's eyes fall on it, and moves to pick it up. It's obviously heavier than it looks as he uses two hands to lift it and carefully places it on the bed beside Cloud.

By now Aerith has let go of him, and she motions for him to open it. The concept is somewhat bizarre to Cloud- although his mother always had a gift for him every year he had never received anything from a friend, mostly because he didn't have any.

"'sfrom me and Aerith. We got it imported all the way from Rocket Town," Zack explains before Cloud has the chance to ask.

He isn't exactly sure where Rocket Town is, but it sounds far off and important. Whatever it is, it must be good… and therefore, expensive. Unfastening the two buckles on the hard case he pulls the zip to and opens it apprehensively.

Inside is a slick looking blade which reflects the morning sunlight into Cloud's already glowing eyes. Eagerly he pulls out the sword and discovers that it was in fact quite light- most of the weight had been in the case it arrived in. He studies the perfect blue hilt and finds the word "YOSHIYUKI" engraved into it.

"Than- thanks!" he grins as he looks to Aerith and Zack in turn, holding the sword proudly.

"I had enough of you eying up my Buster Sword! Plus, it'll probably come in useful later."

"Later?" Cloud asks somewhat confused.

Zack nods and looks to Aerith. She pulls a small envelope out of her breast pocket and hands it to Cloud. Carefully he puts down his sword and looks inside.

"This is…?"

"Train tickets!" the flower girl confirms.

"Three of them?"

Zack laughs a little. "Well, we can't have you running off alone, can we now?"

Cloud smiles softly, not sure he wants to trust in what's happening. "So… we're all leaving Midgar?" He asks after a moment's contemplation.

"All of us," Aerith says.

---

A few hours later, once Zack has left for work, Aerith and Cloud take one last trip to the Church. Cloud has only in been two or three times as he's usually still sleeping by the time she gets there, and so he often meets up with her outside.

A Church, or so Cloud's studying has told him, is a Holy building of an ancient and dead religion. Apparently, back in the days when Midgar was only a small village the Church had been the most important building, and if Cloud had so much as paid attention in school he would have known that Nibelheim once had one, too.

It is easy to tell that the building was old. One of the towering double doors at the entrance hangs off of its hinges and as a result the door was always ajar, yet still difficult to open from the years of rust that had built up around the remaining hinges. Some of the pews – the seats where people sat to worship, Cloud had read – have sunk through the wooden floor under their own weight and they are all riddled with cracks, if not broken. Cloud also notices that none of the religious artefacts he learnt about remained the first time he visits.

Yet what stands out most of all in the Church is the hole in the very centre where the floor boards have been made weak by time and easily broken away. Earth comes through here, and as the Church was built a long time before Shinra could poison the land it is extremely fertile, and it is here Aerith grows her flowers.

The first time he enters the Church Cloud has the strangest sensation of falling. Now it has subsided somewhat, and he enjoys sitting peacefully among the pews as he watches Aerith tend to her flowers. It's almost as if she does everything subconsciously, as her face is never crossed with looks of concentration, and most of the time she talks to Cloud about Holy-knows-what as she works. She doesn't seem to mind always ending up with mud splattered over her clean dresses, and she always has a flower to give to Cloud at the end of it.

Every so often Cloud gets up and practices with his new sword, as their apartment is far too small- not to mention too messy. He looks down to Aerith who is now watching him with a smile, and for an instant a terrible surge of dread makes him shudder as he looks into her clear eyes. The girl suddenly looks all too familiar.

He tries not to think anymore of it.

"Come on," Aerith says eventually. "I told Zack we'd meet him for a drink."

"A drink?" Cloud asks a little bemused, but puts his sword back into its case none the less.

"Yes. Haven't you ever been to a bar before?" Aerith teases him.

"I… well, no. I'm not old enough, am I?"

The two begin to make their way out of the Church into the night covered streets, and Cloud feels more embarrassed than he rightly should.

"Hmm?" Aerith asks as she glances at him, pushing her face towards his. Cloud moves back a little and raises an eyebrow. "You're seventeen now, right?"

Cloud nods. "The same as you."

"Well then! That's old enough for Midgar."

"Oh… in my village you had to be nineteen to drink. I… suppose it's different everywhere."

The flower girls nods understandingly, and slips her warm hand into his as they leave the brightly light Church and sink into the murky slum. Although Cloud is far to awkward for a real hug– well, except for special occasions, like this morning – he never really objects to this, and always seems quite comfortable to walk hand in hand.

"You know, in Kalm the drinking age is fifteen. No wonder they're all so odd!"

---

"Where are we going?" Aerith curiously asks Zack as soon as he arrives.

"Hmm… some place my employer told me about. It's called Heaven Seven, or something like that." Zack, as usual as taken lead and Cloud and Aerith follow him through the slums.

"You mean Seventh Heaven," she corrects him.

"Ahh, so you've been there before?"

"Nope. But most people have heard of it," she explains, and then is careful to add "most people can get the name right too."

Zack shoots a glare at the flower girl and Cloud rolls his eyes- Zack and Aerith always act like this around each other. She laughs it off and Zack can't hold the glare for long, and the three are soon back to normal.

In the distant there is a well lit building displaying the words "Seventh Heaven", as Aerith said, and people are constantly going in and out. More than half of them can't walk properly and stumble onto each other. What they're serving inside obviously gets the job done- no wonder it's so famous.

Zack opens the door and a buzz of conversation and music escapes into the night. It makes him smile and warms him up- tonight should be good. He holds the door for his two friends who cautiously walk in, still hand in hand.

Being a Wednesday the bar isn't quite as full as it usually is; there are still seats available, and only a few people hover around the bar. Still, there are a lot of people in such a small place, and Cloud feels uncomfortable. Aerith seems to sense this and squeezes his hand reassuringly, and Zack pushes past them to order.

"Zack…?" Cloud hears a familiar voice ask, and when he looks over to bar he almost jumps in disbelief.

"Yo!" Zack exclaims happily as he rushes over to the young girl, and Cloud quickly follows.

"Cloud!" she sounds even more shocked than when she saw Zack.

"Hello Tifa…" he says gently, his head all of a sudden full of so many things he wants to say. "I thought you were… you were…" Cloud trips over his words for a while, but Tifa sees to understand what he means. "I'm glad you're okay," he finally settles for.

Zack nods. "We didn't think anyone got out alive."

Aerith feels somewhat awkward between the three. She isn't exactly sure of what they're talking about, and so says nothing and keeps to herself.

"After… it happened, Shinra said you both died fighting _him_," Tifa explains as she hurries to make the boys drinks.

There is a sudden silence and Cloud and Zack look to each other. The mood of this 'happy reunion' is quickly killed. "Yes…" the black-haired boy murmurs. "I thought they might do that."

"What happened?" Tifa asks.

"… they betrayed us," Cloud simply states.

Tifa looks confused and the answer doesn't satisfy her, but she knows that she shouldn't pursue it any further. Desperate to change the subject she pours shots of Wutaian vodka into two glasses of Cactuar Cola and pushes them across the bar to Cloud and Zack.

"Here, on the house," she says happily, and then for the first time Tifa notices that Aerith's been there the whole time. "Sorry! Would you like something to drink too, miss…"

"Aerith. And yes, please!" The flower girl politely introduces herself.

"Miss Aerith then," Tifa says as she picks up another glass. "Nice to meet you. I'm Tifa."

After a few minutes of talking Cloud, Zack and Aerith find their way to a table with a second drink in their hands. Cloud enjoys the evening, despite always being at least a drink behind Zack and Aerith. He's never drank before, and he finds the strong and burning taste of the vodka too much at first, but he soon finds it's worth it for the warm, buzzing sensation he feels. All of a sudden he has a lot more to say and finds it easier to speak, but he's not aware that his words are slightly slurred.

They talk about a lot of things, most of which Cloud doesn't remember the next day. They decide that they'll use their tickets to first take a trip to Rocket Town- something Cloud suggests as he wants to know the origins of his sword. Aerith is excited to learn that there's an actual Airship docked in the town, and so both Aerith and Zack agree to Cloud's plan.

After a while when the bar has emptied a bit – Cloud thinks that midnight comes around surprisingly quickly – Tifa joins them at their tables. It turns out that bar has recently came into her possession; she was hired as a barmaid as soon as she arrived in Midgar, and the elderly owner passed away only a few months ago.

"Where are you living then?" Tifa asks Cloud.

"In sector two… with Zack and Aerith," he points to the other two with an unsteady finger, just in case Tifa isn't sure who he's talking about.

Tifa looks over to Aerith and Zack who now appear to be emerged in a deadly game of rock-paper-scissors. "Sector two?" she asks. "Aren't those places pretty small?"

"Oh, yeah! We only have two rooms an' two rooms, and two beds, and one is a living room," Cloud cheerfully informs her, not aware that his run on sentence makes little sense.

"I see," Tifa blinks, not completely sure what to make of the situations.

"Actually," Zack chimes in, "we're leaving Midgar tomorrow. Get away from this filthy place."

This upsets Tifa a little. She's only just found Cloud again, and yet he's already leaving with his apparent room-mates- or maybe bed-mates would be more fitting. She can't blame them, though. She knows Midgar really is a horrible city, and it does no one any good.

"I think we should be going now," Aerith says smugly as she beats Zack for the twelfth time.

Cloud and Zack nod in agreement and pull themselves off the wooden stalls. Tifa heads back to the bar to get their coats and Cloud's sword for them, and she hastily pulls a scrap of paper from under the bar and scribbles something on it as she does so. Aerith watches her but says nothing, not even when she slips it into Cloud's pocket.

When all the goodbyes have been said Cloud, Aerith and Zack head back out onto the streets for the long hike back to sector two. The trains by now have all stopped running, and so they walk side-by-side along the dimly light pavement. Spirits are high, and Cloud doesn't even notice when Aerith dips her fingers into his coat pocket and fishes out the slip of paper Tifa put in. It turns out to be a folded newspaper article.

Aerith drops behind as Cloud and Zack walk in front of her with their arms around each other's shoulders, talking excitedly, and probably far too loud for one-thirty in the morning. Unfolding the paper causes the ink to smudge against her pale fingers, and the flower girl flips over the page to read what Tifa's written.

_Cloud, _it says, _I didn't want to bring this up and ruin your birthday celebration, but I wanted you to know. He's still alive, Cloud. It might just be a rumour, but I know it! Just make sure that Zack and Ares _–Aerith grimaces at the misspelling of her name- _look after you, and don't hesitate to pop back._

This "he", she assumes, is the same person they were talking about in hushed whispers when they first met at the bar. Turning over the page all the colour drains from her face, and she feels the earth slip from under her feet as her heart rises into her throat.

In bold, black letters the title reads: _ex-General Sephiroth Still Alive- Exclusive Report._


End file.
